On November 13, a North Korean soldier defected through the demilitarized zone, eventually being shot 5 times by fellow North Korean soldiers before lying about 55 yards over the border, where he was dragged to safety by South Korean sergeants 40 minutes later. This video from the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission shows the harrowing escape from start to rescue.
Warning: this video contains graphic footage.
The solider, identified solely by his surname, Oh, made the defection by driving a military jeep toward the demilitarized zone before running across the border on foot after the vehicle became stuck off the road. North Korean soldiers chased after him, firing over 40 shots, 5 of which hit Oh. He was eventually dragged to safety by South Korean personnel, after which he was flown to Anjou Hospital, where he was successfully operated on, with doctors noting he was suffering from numerous ailments that indicated horrible conditions in North Korea.
If it's a little hard to keep track of what's going on with all the different cameras, this video will help to clarify the events:
The Washington Post has reported that the actions of the North Korean soldiers violated the armistice agreement, both by firing at the defector and chasing him across the border. The agreement has been in place since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
[via Jalopnik]
Very fortunate to live in a country where this is not a reality. However.......always a good idea to stop and share info with border control guards even when driving through friendly countries.
Lol, why is this on Fstoppers? Because if you are going for that clickbait (you are), you're a few days late to the party.
I’m not going for any clickbait. It’s a striking example of the power of cameras, and that’s why it’s here.
Thank you for sharing Alex. Without cameras we would have been subject to the typical, 'We say, they say' from conflicting countries. this proves how sick North Korea can be and how brave the South Koreans are.
I'd suggest maybe talking about how it's relevant more in your article. You could have just as well taken a photo of your breakfast and told us how you cooked it and used the same reasoning for why it should be on a photography site.
Have you seen the weather channel's website? They have more clickbait than weather information but it must make sense because there's weather going on in most of the videos even though they don't make light of its significance.
My breakfast doesn't have major consequences on the course of world events.
well.....with that attitude...
I've had Beef Wellington and a Napoleon for dinner: both pretty consequential to world events. Next time I'll take a picture!
Hahaha, guess I'll have to work harder on my breakfast. ;)
Waiting for the same sensationalist speech on South Korean defectors (or not even defectors e.g. Ro Su-hui) who are equally repressed and shot because, you know, both countries were "always" on the warpath.
Also: why is this on Fstoppers? [2]
See my answer above.
It is on here because it falls under Photojournalism. He is just passing along info in case some readers have not seen this footage.
Exactly! And I'm Santa Claus. Ho ho ho
No, you are just a believer in an ideology, which results in more than 80millions of death across the globe in just 100yrs. I was born in one of these places your fellow believer destroyed, thank you.
Won't talk to fanatical dumb people. Thank you.
Oh, talking about dump, who did you just reply? Talking about working out great, Brazilian economy, your Lulinha Paza E Amor works great for you guys! Oh... Never mind...
I've been good this year. Can I have a pony? :-)
I wonder when we'll start getting articles on football games. They take photos at every game so it's totally relevant here.
Although fstop as in fstoppers is a photographic term, it is a forum for sharing information, if you are not interested in a particular topic, simply pass it by. And to another point, if we had handled north korea, the same way we handled japan and germany in ww2, this problem would not exist.
I don't understand your point. Germany and Japan surrendered, allowing us to "handle" them in the way we did. That wasn't the case with North Korea.
That is the point, we didn't beat them to the point of surrender.
Oh. I thought you meant our post-war treatment of Germany and Japan. I'm not sure beating them to the point of surrender was possible. We were psychologically and economically tired by then.
very good point
i wouldve thought "the worlds most guarded border" would take a little more effort to cross than just driving through it. both sides mustve spent hundreds of millions on the DMZ and not even a road bump or a boom barrier?
Boredom.
People suffer wherever communism goes.
Woah..